GPDRR

Indonesia offers sustainable resilience to tackle disaster risk

JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At the 2022 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) event, the Government of Indonesia offered the world the concept of sustainable resilience as a solution to address the challenges of systemic disaster risk.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo highlighted this concept at the opening ceremony of the 2022 GPDRR in Nusa Dua, here, on Wednesday.

The sustainable resilience concept is considered to be a solution to tackle all forms of disasters, including facing a pandemic and concurrently supporting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Jokowi remarked.

He highlighted the need to apply several measures to build sustainable resilience.

"First, we should strengthen an anticipatory, responsive, and adaptive disaster preparedness culture as well as institutions in dealing with disasters," President Jokowi stated.

According to the president, disaster mitigation education and government institutions that are synergistic and responsive to disasters must become a shared priority.

Jokowi explained that the second measure deemed necessary is for every country to invest in science, innovation, and technology, including in ensuring access to finance and technology transfer.

"Access to funding is an important issue that we must take seriously. Indonesia has developed a strategy for funding and disaster insurance by establishing a pooling fund and using development funds at local levels to support disaster mitigation and preparedness," he stated.

The third measure is by building infrastructure that is resilient to disasters and climate change.

"(This is) in addition to mitigating (the impacts on) physical infrastructure, such as dams, breakwaters, reservoirs, and embankments; green infrastructure, such as mangrove forests, shrimp seedlings on the coast; ... as well as the development of open spaces to be part of the realization of infrastructure development," Jokowi pointed out.

"The protection of vulnerable groups living in high disaster risk areas must also get special attention," he stressed.

Lastly, the Indonesian president invited all countries to commit to implementing global agreements at the national and local levels.

"The Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the SDGs are important international agreements in the efforts to reduce disaster risk and climate change. I invite all countries to be committed and serious about implementing it," Jokowi stated.